A WOMAN’S HEART, WITH IRELAND’S MARY BLACK, MAURA O’CONNELL, SHARON SHANNON AND CARA DILLON MAKE MARIN CENTER APPEARANCE
NOVEMBER 6, 7 PM
When: Sunday, November 6 at 7 p.m.
Where: Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium, Avenue of the Flags at Civic Center Drive in San Rafael.
What: A WOMAN’S HEART, the internationally acclaimed tour showcasing Ireland’s foremost female artists, makes its Bay Area appearance, as part of its national tour. The evening, hosted by Mary Black, recognized as one of Ireland’s premier music exports, will showcase singers Maura O’Connell and Cara Dillon in addition to Black herself along with accordion/fiddle virtuoso Sharon Shannon performing material from the three A WOMAN’S HEART compilations. Backing the women in solo and ensemble performances will be a roster of musicians selected from Ireland’s finest.
Public Info: The performance will take place at the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium, Avenue of the Flags at Civic Center Drive in San Rafael. Tickets are $40, $35 and $25 and can be ordered through the Marin Center Box Office at 415-499-6800, Ticketmaster.com or Ticketmaster outlets throughout the Bay Area. Visit www.marincenter.org.
* * * * * * * * * * *
SAN RAFAEL, CA -- A WOMAN’S HEART, the internationally acclaimed tour showcasing Ireland’s foremost female artists, makes its Bay Area appearance, as part of its national tour, at Marin Center, Sunday, November 6 at 7 p.m. The evening, hosted by Mary Black, recognized as one of Ireland’s premier music exports, will showcase singers Maura O’Connell and Cara Dillon in addition to Black herself along with accordion/fiddle virtuoso Sharon Shannon performing material from the three A WOMAN’S HEART compilations. Backing the women in solo and ensemble performances will be a roster of musicians selected from Ireland’s finest. The performance will take place at the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium, Avenue of the Flags at Civic Center Drive in San Rafael. Tickets are $40, $35 and $25 and can be ordered through the Marin Center Box Office at 415-499-6800, Ticketmaster.com or Ticketmaster outlets throughout the Bay Area. Visit www.marincenter.org. The phenomenon that is A WOMAN’S HEART – three hugely successful compilations and sold-out European and Irish tours – began with the release of the first album in 1992. A WOMAN’S HEART featured Black, O’Connell and Shannon as well as Dolores Keane, Eleanor McEvoy and Francis Black. Whether or not the rumor is true that every house in Ireland had a copy of the album, the fact is that A WOMAN’S HEART held the Number 1 spot on the Irish charts for some 20 weeks and has, to date, sold nearly one million copies; it is Ireland’s all-time, best-selling album. A WOMAN’S HEART2 was released in 1994. Reuniting Black, O’Connell and Shannon, the collection also included songs from Sinéad O’Connor, Sinéad Lohan, Mary Coughan and Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill. A WOMAN’S HEART—A DECADE ON is the third and most recent chapter in the series. Released in 2003 to celebrate the anniversary of the initial landmark album, the compilation featured material from Alison Krauss, The Corrs & The Chieftains, Dolly Parton and Altan and Eva Cassidy as well as selections from Black, O’Connell, Shannon and U.S. tour mate Cara Dillon.
Showcasing many of the outstanding singers, songwriters and musicians on the contemporary Irish and international Celtic music scene, the A WOMAN’S HEART series is extraordinary for the breadth and depth of the talent it presents. All three CDs were released by Dublin-based Dara Records and available in the United States under a licensing agreement by independent Blix Street Records, distributed by Ryko.
MARY BLACK has been one of Ireland’s most cherished singers for more than 20 years. In 1983, her debut album, MARY BLACK, earned her the Number 4 spot on the Irish charts—the first in a very long list of best-selling albums—and the Irish Independent Arts Award for Music—the first in a very long list of awards and honors. Today, the woman who was once
called “a staggering talent, a breathtaking vocalist who hardly fits any mold” (Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle) is not only a legend in her own country and a familiar face on concert stages around the globe, but recognized as one of the finest pop music vocalists in the world. She has seven Platinum albums, among them the groundbreaking NO FRONTIERS, which spent 56 weeks in the Irish top 30. Her recordings, including MARY BLACK, NO FRONTIERS, COLLECTED, BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK and HOLY GROUND are available on Blix Street Records’ Gifthorse imprint. Mary Black’s new album, FULL TIDE, will be released in Ireland on October 28th and will be available in the U.S. shortly thereafter.
MAURA O’CONNELL routinely describes herself as “just a singer,” but anyone familiar with her deep, rich vocals and uncanny ability to cut straight to the heart of a song knows that this is a singer who gives more than lip service to all the right notes. Her recording debut on DeDannan’s THE STAR-SPANGLED MOLLY in 1981 made her a household name in Ireland, and since then, her top-selling recordings and tours have extended the Co. Clare native’s audience throughout the world. Her 1989 album HELPLESS HEART was nominated for a Grammy® in the Contemporary Folk category while WANDERING HOME celebrates her Irish roots. She’s appeared with artists as diverse as Dolly Parton, Van Morrison and Roseanne Cash—and as a migrant street singer in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar®-nominated film, “The Gangs of New York.” Her discography includes BLUE IS THE COLOR OF HOPE and WALLS & WINDOWS. Her tenth and latest solo album is DON’T I KNOW.
SHARON SHANNON is widely regarded as one of the most gifted musicians of her generation. From a family of musicians and set dancers in Co. Clare, she was playing the accordion by age 10, taught herself fiddle during a brief spell at University College, Cork and, while still in her teens, was asked by famed director Jim Sheridan to provide the music for his stage production of Brendan Behan’s “The Hostage.” A stint with The Waterboys was followed by the 1991 release of her solo debut, SHARON SHANNON. A ground-breaking entry in traditional music, it featured Cajun, French Canadian and Portuguese tunes and musicians including Donal Lunny, U2’s Adam Clayton, Liam O’ Maonlai and The Waterboys’ Mike Scott and Steve Wickham. Following the release of A WOMAN’S HEART, Shannon became a much-in-demand artist on the U.S. and European festival circuit, making musical history both for the caliber of her playing and for her fearlessly eclectic choice of material. That history is well chronicled on the new double CD set, THE SHARON SHANNON COLLECTION 1990-2005 (Daisy Discs), comprising 29 tracks from her six previous albums, which includes material from the classic THE DIAMOND MOUNTAIN SESSION and 2003’s LIBERTANGO, plus five new tunes.
CARA DILLON won the All-Ireland Singing Trophy at age 14. By the time she was 20, the Co. Derry native had performed with Oige and replaced Kate Rusby in the folk supergroup Equation. In 2001, Dillon earned raves from critics and found a world of new fans with CARA DILLON, an album of mainly traditional material produced with partner/pianist Sam Lakeman, also an Equation alum. The album snatched Best New Act and Best Traditional Track (“Black Is The Colour”) at the BBC RADIO2 Folk Awards and Hot Press Magazine named Best Traditional Album. The album’s success resulted in a year that included 200 concerts, among them dates on the WOMAD shows in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In 2003, Dillon and Lakeman released the well-received SWEET LIBERTY, which included original tunes as well as Tommy Sands’ “There Were Roses,” a song about Northern Ireland she has made her own. She’s appeared on record with Ghostland and on Mike Oldfield’s TUBULAR BELLS 3, toured with Paul Brady and opened for Altan on that group’s 2003 US tour. Her newest recording on Rough Trade is set for U.K. release this fall.
